Religious education contributes to children’s spiritual, moral, social, cultural and intellectual development. It provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
The school teaches RE in line with the legal requirement, by following the agreed Programme of Study of The City of York. It is felt that all children, whatever their personal beliefs and commitments, can study RE in line with this syllabus. The syllabus is a balanced curriculum with three strands: believing (looking at where beliefs come from and how they have changed over time), thinking (how and whether things make sense eg. morality and ethics) and living ( the diverse ways in which individuals, communities and societies practice their beliefs). Linking into our British Values and School Values, each year-group studies Christianity alongside another major religion.
RE is taught through ‘RE Weeks’. Each RE Week has a whole school ‘Key Question’. Each year group then fully immerses the children in learning about this using the City of York Syllabus alongside other resources.The nature of the City of York Syllabus Key Questions also allows for areas of the main religions to be revisited and extended by each year group. At Carr we use the following approaches as part of our learning:
Windows: giving children opportunities to become aware of the world in new ways.
Mirrors: giving children opportunities to reflect on their experiences.
Doors: giving children opportunities to respond to all of this; to do something eg raise money for charity.
By the end of year 6, the children are well rounded with the main faiths/non faiths studied as well as being able to express their own opinions and respect those of others.
Alongside the syllabus there are many opportunities for children to be curious individuals. To allow the children’s learning to be real and meaningful,and be a first hand experience, visitors who hold a variety of different faiths/non-faiths are invited into school, and trips are organised to places of worship. Every child in school is kept up to date with current local and world events through Picture News. As Picture News covers both national and global current affairs, children can think about the lives of other people living in other places and with different values and customs.Children can make choices and recognise the difference between right and wrong. They can also recognise that they have responsibilities, rights and duties.
The impact of this is that the children are given the opportunity to aim high and enhance their own spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, whilst given the teaching tools to recognise and be respectful of the right for people to hold different beliefs within an ethnically and socially diverse society. Children are then well equipped to engage with challenging current world issues such as racism and protecting our earth.
Year 4 raising money for @OscarsCharity with another rugby challenge! #community #carrstars
Year 4 Completing one of our charity rugby challenges for @OscarsCharity #community #carrstars
Lots of drumming fun to end the half term in 3P! #carrstars #selfbelief #happy
Year 3 rugby tournament #CarrStars #determination #self-belief
;
